Oct. 12, 2009
Box Score
EVANSVILLE, Ind. -
The Illinois State women's tennis team dominated in the finals at the MVC Individual Championships in Evansville, Ind., on Sunday. The `Birds took home six titles, including one from junior Franziska Steinhardt.
In Flight 4 singles, Steinhardt brought home the Redbirds first title of the day by defeating Jessica Kunzelmann of Northern Iowa besting her, 6-4, 6-2. In Flight 5, Ariane Maack outplayed Michela Cruise of Southern Illinois, 7-5, 6-2. Hannah Esker defeated Earlynn Lauer of Drake in Flight 7, 6-1, 2-6, 6-0.
After such a dominating weekend, head coach Chris Hoover is very happy with what his student-athletes brought to the courts.
"We played well and obviously dominated the weekend which is good," Hoover said. "We wanted to do that. Three of our four main draw matches were losses but were all three-setters, which was also good."
The Redbirds swept the doubles play taking home a title in Flights 1, 2 and 3. In Flight 1, Julia Zubkova and Steinhardt won their match against Florentina Hanisch and Lenore Lazaroiu of Wichita State, 8-6. Natalia Lech and Maack competed in Flight 2 against Sampada Kanade and Jessica Knuzelmann of Northern Iowa besting them, 8-3. Taking another win in Flight 3, Redbird duo of Carmen Peters and Esker outplayed Michela Cruise and Emily Whitney of Southern Illinois, 8-2.
"We're definitely one of the teams to beat in the league. We're right where we want to be," Hoover said.
The women's tennis team will return to play at the Midwest Regionals in Chicago, Ill., Oct. 22-27.
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